A toroidal roller bearing is a unique type of roller bearing which provides specific characteristics compared to other bearings. Especially, a toroidal roller bearing is known for its ability to allow for angular misalignment and axial displacement of its rings. An example of a toroidal roller bearing can for example be found in EP0175858A1.
A toroidal roller bearing can advantageously be used as a non-locating bearing in a bearing arrangement, wherein the bearing is designed to accommodate radial loads and no axial loads. A second bearing position of the arrangement may then be a locating bearing position, i.e. it may present a bearing which can accommodate radial and axial loads. Such a bearing can for example be a double row spherical roller bearing which is designed to accommodate radial and axial loads but also to allow for misalignment of the bearing's rings.
In certain situations, there may be a need to dismount an application after it has been in use for a period of time. This may be the case if there is a need to replace and/or refurbish certain components of the application. One example where it may be a need to perform regular maintenance is in a continuous casting machine, which provides a number of roll lines which are rotatably supported by bearings. An issue which may occur when the roll lines are dismounted is that certain components are destroyed to such an extent that they can not be reused. This may happen for a toroidal roller bearing when it is dismounted. Therefore, when the roll line is assembled again a new toroidal roller bearing has to be used which will lead to an increased cost for the machine owner.
As another example, there may be a need to dismount a toriodal roller bearing when the bearing has been incorrectly mounted to thereby correctly remount the bearing again.
Furthermore, due to the unique design of the toroidal roller bearing it is known that it occasionally may be difficult to dismount it. For example, the bearing may get stuck due to corrosion that is created betweeen the shaft and the bearing during use, which will lead to that a very high pulling force will be required to remove the bearing. In addition, occasionally it may be difficult to remove the bearing due to e.g. space reasons and/or tight press fit of at least one of the bearing rings against its respective shaft or bearing housing. One method used to remove a toroidal roller bearing is known in WO2013176594, where a tool using magnetic forces is used for dismounting. However, there is room for improvements.